Journey2gether

Amongst the many interesting questions raised in class today, we had the age-old concern: “What is faith?” or “What do we mean by ‘faith’?” (Thanks, Simeon =)). As promised, I’ve found the passage from one of Paul’s epistles (i.e. one of his letters) that speaks of faith.

To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval. It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God’s word, so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen. (Hebrews 11:1-3)

The rest of the passage goes on to describe the faith of the ancient figures such as Moses, Noah, and Abraham. It is as if St Paul knew that such an explanation of faith would be difficult to grasp, and these subsequent descriptions are like illustrations or examples that can help us better understand what he means in Hebrews 11:1-3. 

Recall the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 in which God had called Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Now, this command is perplexing on so many different levels. First, why would God demand that a parent sacrifice his son? (And seemingly for no real reason!) Moreover, Isaac was the son through whom Abraham was to have the descendants that God promised (see Gen 21:12) — but how would that happen if Isaac really lost his life on the sacrificial altar? These are questions that reason cannot answer.

St Paul writes:

It was faith that made Abraham offer his son as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test. Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice. God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised.” Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death — and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Indeed, ‘reckon’ seems to suggest some sort of reasoning going on… But how certain can we be of such a possibility? This is one example of faith at work. 

So that’s what St Paul has to say to the Hebrews.

To me, faith is trusting in God even when there’s no apparent or obvious proof that something that I am hoping for will come true. Faith doesn’t need proof, because it is certain in itself. It isn’t conditional — it doesn’t say: Ok, I will believe in you if you show me a pink elephant in my bedroom in 5 seconds. Someone once mentioned to me with a smile: “If there’s evidence in front of you, you can’t help but believe it because to believe otherwise would be absurd and irrational. If you believe it even if you don’t have evidence before your eyes — that’s faith.”

Well, of course now there may be a temptation to say silly things like: I have faith that there’s a pink elephant in my room now even though I cannot see it.
But you and I know that faith isn’t as trivial as that =)

I hope this post has been useful for you. And maybe faith isn’t such a hard concept to grasp after all. Maybe it’s simply ‘trust in God’. Especially when the odds are against you.

- Stephanie 

P.S. The version of the Bible I used in the above quotes is the Good News Bible, which I think is what most of you are using. Do read the rest of Hebrews =)